Existing law provides for the time of commencing civil actions other than for the recovery of real property, as specified. Under existing law, unless a longer period is prescribed for a specific action, an action for damages against a defendant based upon the defendant's commission of a felony offense for which the defendant has been convicted is required to be brought within one year after the judgment has been pronounced. Existing law also authorizes an action for damages to be brought within 10 years of the date on which the defendant is discharged from parole if the conviction was for any of certain serious felonies, as specified. This bill would include a human trafficking offense as a serious felony for which an action for damages against a defendant may be brought within 10 years from the date on which the defendant is discharged from parole, and would make other nonsubstantive changes and update a cross-reference in these provisions.
Sponsored bills
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the tax imposed by that law. This bill would allow a credit against that tax for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2014, in an amount equal to the amount donated to a qualified charitable organization, as defined, not to exceed a specified amount per taxable year. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to certify that the organization is a qualified charitable organization and post a list of the certified qualified charitable organizations on its Internet Web site. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would designate a 5-mile portion of Interstate 10 as the CAL FIRE Firefighter Christopher Lee Douglas Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Existing law authorizes the principal of a school to recommend a pupil for community college summer session if the pupil meets certain criteria and requires, for any particular grade level, the principal to not recommend for community college summer session more than 5% of the total number of pupils who completed that grade immediately before the time of recommendation. Existing law, until January 1, 2014, requires a high school pupil recommended for enrollment in a community college course to not be included in the 5% limit if the course meets certain criteria and the principal provides the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges with specific data that is included in a report submitted to the Department of Finance. Existing law also, until January 1, 2014, requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to not include enrollment growth attributable to pupils not included in the 5% limit as part of its annual budget request for the California Community Colleges. This bill would extend the provisions related to high school pupils not included in the 5% limit, as described above, until January 1, 2019.
Existing law requires the state to have the primary financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires in areas that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has determined are state responsibility areas, as defined. Existing law requires the State Board of Equalization to collect a fire prevention fee not to exceed $150 to be charged on each structure on a parcel that is within a state responsibility area. Existing law specifies that the fire prevention fee determined to be due by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is due and payable at the time it becomes final, and imposes a specified civil penalty for each 30-day period during which the fee remains unpaid. This bill would eliminate the specified civil penalty imposed for unpaid fire prevention fees.
The California Constitution permits private property to be taken or damaged for public use only when just compensation is paid. The Eminent Domain Law prescribes how that constitutionally authorized power may be exercised and permits that exercise only for a public use. The law permits a local public entity to acquire by eminent domain property within its territorial limits only, except if the power to acquire property outside its limits is expressly granted by statute or necessarily implied. This bill would make a nonsubstantive, technical change to these provisions.
The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including a credit against those taxes for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in an amount equal to an applicable percentage of either 20% or 25%, respectively, of the qualified expenditures, as defined, attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture in California, or, where the qualified motion picture is a television series that relocated to California or is an independent film, as provided. Existing law imposes specified duties on the California Film Commission related to the administration of the credits, including a requirement to allocate the tax credits until July 1, 2017, and limits the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated to qualified motion pictures in any fiscal year to $100,000,000 through the 2016–17 fiscal year. Existing law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, also allows a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. Existing law provides for a tentative minimum tax and further provides that, except for specified credits, no other credit shall reduce the tax imposed below the tentative minimum tax. This bill would establish similar credits under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, to be allocated by the California Film Commission on or after July 1, 2015, and before July 1, 2020. This bill would, as compared to the existing tax credits, extend the scope of the credits for a qualified motion picture to the applicable percentage of qualified expenditures up to $100,000,000, would extend the credit to qualified expenditures for television pilot episodes, and would determine an applicable percentage of 25% or 20% for qualified expenditures, with an additional credit amount available, as specified. This bill would limit the aggregate amount of these new credits to be allocated in each fiscal year to up to $330 million, and would, subject to a computation and ranking of applicants based on the jobs ratio, as defined, require the California Film Commission to allocate credit amounts subject to specified categories of qualified motion pictures. This bill would, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, in lieu of the credits authorized under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law for qualified motion pictures described above, allow a credit against qualified state sales and use taxes, as provided. This bill would also require the Legislative Analyst's Office to prepare reports related to the effectiveness and administration of the qualified motion picture credit under the Sales and Use Tax Law, the Personal Income Tax Law, and the Corporation Tax Law. This bill would, for taxable years, beginning on or after January 1, 2016, additionally allow the credit under the Corporation Tax Law for qualified expenditures for the production of qualified motion pictures to reduce the tentative minimum tax. This bill would also make findings and declarations related to the entertainment industry, and would urge the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to investigate and impose sanctions on specified motion picture productions and elements of production to combat unfair and illegal competition. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 23036 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, proposed by AB 2754, to be operative only if AB 2754 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2015, and this bill is chaptered last. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue specialty license plates, including environmental license plates and specified special environmental design license plates. Under existing law, a state agency is authorized to apply to the DMV to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and the DMV is required to issue those license plates if the agency meets certain requirements. The DMV is required to charge specified fees for certain services related to the issuance of those plates. Existing law establishes the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund, and requires that funds in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be allocated for the provision of early breast cancer detection services for uninsured and underinsured women. This bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to apply to sponsor a breast cancer awareness license plate program, and would require the DMV to issue the license plates if the State Department of Health Care Services meets certain requirements. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to accept and use donated artwork from California artists for the license plate. The bill would require the revenue generated from the license plates, as specified, to be deposited in the Breast Cancer Control Account in the Breast Cancer Fund. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.